Redland unveils 0.5% rates rise, lowest in south east Queensland

A typical Redland household will have to fork out, on average, an extra $16.12 for general rates, water and utility charges in the next financial year.

The 0.5 per cent increase was calculated by the council based on a typical residential owner-occupied property valued at $280,000.

According to the council approximation, an overall rates bill would rise from $3179 to $3195 for an owner occupied property valued at $280,000 in 2014-15.0

That calculation, however, did not include an increase in land valuations for 2015-16.

A city-wide environmental levy will increase by $2.20 to $87.20 to pay for environmental staff and maintain assets.

A landfill remediation charge, which pays to maintain landfill sites at Birkdale and Redland Bay, will fall by $22 bringing the annual payment to $40.

A standard 240l wheelie bin will now cost a household an extra $6.50 a year, or $342.50, and an average domestic wastewater fee will rise $15.50 to $675.75.

Mayor Karen Williams said her $275million budget was a balancing act between providing quality services and keeping down costs.

“I made a commitment and listened to people who told me the cost of living was too high so I did everything in my power to keep rate increases as low as possible," Cr Williams said.

“The fact is, over four years, the cumulative headline rate increases are actually less than CPI (council is using the March CPI of 1.3%).

"The measure of success in a budget is not how much money you raise, it's actually what you deliver to the community,” she said.

Although final operating balances were unknown, Cr Williams said she expected to post her third surplus in a row on June 30 tipping the figure to be between $10million and $11million.

She said she had stuck to her election pledge of keeping rates rises at CPI, despite a whopping 10 per cent hike in the price of state government water.

Council slashed its component of a water bill by nearly 30 per cent.

Cr Williams said the budget included a 1.99 per cent increase in the headline rate, a figure which gauges budgeted revenue increases, including all rates and utilities less remissions.

Most of that increased revenue would come from new rateable properties, with only 0.05 per cent from existing ratepayers, she said.

Councillors Paul Bishop (Div10); Murray Elliott (Div7); Lance Hewlett (Div 4); Craig Ogilvie (Div1) and Wendy Boglary (Div2) voted against the budget.

Cr Ogilvie said the budget’s operating statement was a “tidy” set of figures bolstered by the return of the water business and its revenue stream to the city.

However, he said the way the $275million budget was managed highlighted the duelling visions for the city – development at all cost to raise revenue versus modest development with money spent in existing neighbourhoods.

He gave the analogy of the much-loved Australian movie The Castle. After the meeting he said changes in landfill remediation made a big difference to council’s ability to keep rates increases low.

“I was disappointed that the prioritisation of capital works has been ad-hoc,” he said. “How does the council justify building a $800,000 road at the edge of the city with hardly any vehicles on it?

 “Council is running down plant and equipment and maintenance on assets and, like The Castle, this budget follows a vision of the Redlands as wall-to-wall development.

 “People are paying high rates and want to see something for their money. They are worried about lack of playing fields, road congestion, footpaths and council is spending all ratepayers’ money on new development areas.”